Special Olympics Grande Prairie and Area is the recipient of $9,600 from 100+ Women Who Care. They were the chosen charity at their February meeting.
“We hadn’t really heard much about the organization prior to being nominated, but we were very excited about it,” says Kelly Hollahan with Special Olympics.
“When we did the presentation, you’re again standing in front of people you don’t know and are going against two other charities that are just as worthy as you are.”
Hollahan says funding has been a long time struggle for the organization, as they don’t receive external dollars outside of their own fundraising. She says the generous donation from 100+ Women Who Care Grande Prairie will go a long way in taking care of things like jerseys and travel.
“It costs so much to travel from Grande Prairie to Edmonton. We have swim meets coming up in Calgary and Red Deer… no one comes up this way, so we have to travel down there.”
Recently, Grande Prairie-based athletes Nikki King, Tricia Cramer, Steve Grandjambe, Desiree Rehm, Darryl Loutitt, Brendon Mercier, and Darren Pedersen all won medals at the 2020 Special Olympics Canada Winter Games.
Since reforming in 2019, 100+ Women Who Care members have donated more than $30,000 to charities around the region. 100+ Women Who Care Grande Prairie is a group that meets four times a year to donate $10,000 or more to a local not-for-profit.